Average waiting time for Class 4 driving lessons reaches five months, says K Shanmugam

On Monday, 11 November, Mr Melvin Yong, People’s Action Party Member of Parliament for Radin Mas SMC, asked a parliamentary question about the waiting time for Class 4 driving lessons.

He queried, “What is the average waiting time for an applicant to start lessons for a Class 4 driving licence in the past one year? Has demand for these lessons exceeded supply significantly? If so, how does the Ministry plan to resolve the backlog of applicants due to the shortage in driving lesson slots?”

In a written reply, Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam stated, “Between October 2023 and September 2024, the average waiting time for an applicant to start their Class 4 driving lessons was about five months.”

He attributed the delays to “an increase in foreign workers applying for Class 4 driving licences and a shortage of instructors in the driving schools.”

To address these challenges, the Minister explained, “Traffic Police (TP) will allow driving schools to employ foreign instructors to supplement the local pool and alleviate the shortage of driving instructors. This will increase training capacity.”

He added, “TP will prioritise applicants who require Class 4 driving licences for occupational purposes.”

Additionally, Mr Shanmugam noted that “Singapore Safety Driving Centre is currently the only driving school that provides facilities for Class 4 training and testing. TP is prepared to license more centres that can meet the requirements for Class 4 training, which are set out in the Schedule of the Road Traffic (Driving Instructors and Driving Schools) (Exemption) Order 2011.”

Public discussions have echoed these concerns.

In an August Reddit post, a user wrote, “Just enrolled Class 4 at SSDC today. On their website, the test date is shown as August 2024. So I thought I could book my lesson slots fairly quickly. However, [I] was told by counter staff that the next available lesson is in March 2025 and TP in April. That’s seven months away from now. And if [I] fail, [the] retest is another at least two months wait.”

A commenter responded, “Demand comes from the foreign worker population as well. Have you seen the construction boom in Singapore recently?” The original poster replied, “Yeah almost everyone who signed up today were foreigners. My dad got his Class 4 licence within a matter of weeks back in 2016. So imagine my horror when I have to wait seven months for [a] lesson lol. And they crammed two back-to-back lessons in two consecutive days, and right after my last lesson, I immediately go for [a] test. LOL.”

The commenter added, “Yeah, foreign worker lesson demand is causing bottlenecks for all driving classes (bike classes still no issues for now), from Class 3 all the way to Class 5. Even though they usually go for Class 3 in order to upgrade to heavy vehicles, the demand forces schools to allocate instructors away from 3A to 3.”